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Seeing Scientific Claims

Instructions

• Read 106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney, by William Speed Weed. Please inform your instructor if you cannot find the article.

• Over the next few days, observe your surroundings and compile a list of 10 scientific claims that you encounter. They can be from packages, news articles, politicians, celebrities on Twitter, advertisements, et cetera.

• Turn in a list of your 10 claims with a 1- to 2-sentence summary of each. Make sure to include where you found them with enough information that you could easily find them again. Rate each claim for credibility from 0 to 5, where 0 is completely false and 5 is completely true. An example of what to turn in is below. You may not use any of the claims in the example!

Example

(Remember, you should include 10 claims in your assignment.)

Al Fischer
Scientific Claims
September 9, 2019

1. Sea otters have favorite rocks, which they store in their pockets. Claim found on Twitter, FishOceansCAN, 8 Jul 2019.

   • 4, I did not know this, but it seems very plausible.

2. Nitrogen makes tires last longer. Found on sign of Downtown Tire, Hendersonville, NC, 5 Jul 2019.

   • 2, Slight truth but overstated. Air is mostly nitrogen, so any benefit would be very slight.

3. Epsom salts applied to plants “help seeds germinate” and “produce vitamins” for “higher yields and more blooms”. Found on https://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/uses-benefits/, 8 Jul 2019.

   • 3, mostly true, Epsom salts do not “produce vitamins”, they are vitamins. Otherwise, they are well-known to yield stronger plants.